Malwarebytes Premium causing network/firewall issues?

[bloodshotchrome]

Hello all, first time poster. I have started coming across weird networking/firewall issues after prolonged use of my computer (I leave my computer on for the most part.) I'd say after about 2-3 days of being on, these issues will suddenly start occurring.

Such issues include -

• OBS Studio will not authenticate with Twitch to provide API elements (The chat and stream info windows will not appear, resuilting with the error: failed to authenticate with twitch)
• Loading webpages taking a longer time than before... about 10 seconds to load up a google search page.
• Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) will not work period - either via the internet or locally to my home server.
• My computer can ping my home server, but the server cannot ping my computer from command prompt.... despite my computers DHCP-assigned static IP showing up when using arp -a.
• Windows Defenders Firewall WILL NOT load (Although I hear that MBAM may set the Windows Defender processes to be Manual rather than automatic so that may explain this)
• When creating sessions in games like Monster Hunter World, the session takes F O R E V E R to load.
• Likewise, using Splashtop (my work's remote access software) to remotely access client computers also can take a prolonged time than normal.

Restarting the computer resolves all these issues and everything works as normal. Me being in IT, I thought a networking issue might have been causing this (Specifically thinking that port 443 was being blocked or something) but after running several port checks, updating my routers firmware, updating my LAN driver on my pc ect I determined that the issue is isolated to my system. 

Then I found this post on Bleeping Computer (Hopefully link sharing is not against the rules here..): https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/716117/cannot-open-windows-firewall/

And noticed all the similarities between me and this poster's issues - specifically that we both have MBAM Premium. After finding this revelation, I have come here to seek help on the matter. I am running Windows 10 1909 with MBAM Premium 4.1.0.56. I apologize if this issue has been posted before but it is kind of difficult searching up this topic..

[Malwarebytes]

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[exile360]

Greetings,

It sounds as though your system is being affected by a known issue with the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes which can cause performance issues with the network and some applications over time (likely due to some sort of cumulative effect in memory, though that's just my own speculation).  The Developers are aware of this issue and a fix is being worked on to be released in a future version of Malwarebytes once it is ready.  You can keep an eye on the forums for info on releases and updates on this issue, and a member of the staff will likely respond to this thread once a fix for this issue has been released.

In the meantime, disabling Web Protection in Malwarebytes should prevent the issue from occurring, or you may revert to an earlier version of Malwarebytes which is not impacted by this issue until a new version with the fix is released.  I would also recommend installing the free Malwarebytes Browser Guard for any Chromium based browser(s) you might use as well as Firefox if you use that as it will provide the same blocking as Web Protection, only limited to just protecting your browser(s) rather than the whole system (and you may keep it once the issue with Web Protection is resolved), though it does have the benefit of including blocking for some items not blocked by Web Protection (including many ads and trackers, as well as behavior based blocking of unknown sites; something the Web Protection in Malwarebytes cannot do because it resides outside the browser).

If you wish to revert to the earlier version of Malwarebytes let us know and we'll provide a link to download it and instructions on how to configure it so that it doesn't automatically upgrade to the current version containing the issue.

[bloodshotchrome]

8 minutes ago, exile360 said:

Greetings,

It sounds as though your system is being affected by a known issue with the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes which can cause performance issues with the network and some applications over time (likely due to some sort of cumulative effect in memory, though that's just my own speculation).  The Developers are aware of this issue and a fix is being worked on to be released in a future version of Malwarebytes once it is ready.  You can keep an eye on the forums for info on releases and updates on this issue, and a member of the staff will likely respond to this thread once a fix for this issue has been released.

In the meantime, disabling Web Protection in Malwarebytes should prevent the issue from occurring, or you may revert to an earlier version of Malwarebytes which is not impacted by this issue until a new version with the fix is released.  I would also recommend installing the free Malwarebytes Browser Guard for any Chromium based browser(s) you might use as well as Firefox if you use that as it will provide the same blocking as Web Protection, only limited to just protecting your browser(s) rather than the whole system (and you may keep it once the issue with Web Protection is resolved), though it does have the benefit of including blocking for some items not blocked by Web Protection (including many ads and trackers, as well as behavior based blocking of unknown sites; something the Web Protection in Malwarebytes cannot do because it resides outside the browser).

If you wish to revert to the earlier version of Malwarebytes let us know and we'll provide a link to download it and instructions on how to configure it so that it doesn't automatically upgrade to the current version containing the issue.

Ah thank you for the response. I will just plow through as the restarting to resolve is a fairly quick fix. It was just driving me crazy not being able to figure out what the issue was. I'll await the fix then, thank you!

[AdvancedSetup]

Let us know if you require any additional assistance

Thank you

 

[exile360]

I'd also suggest going ahead and installing Malwarebytes Browser Guard as I noted above, assuming you aren't using it already.  It will augment your protection, even if you keep Web Protection enabled, as it blocks many items not blocked by the Web Protection in Malwarebytes Premium and the two tools work very well together.

[Maurice Naggar]

Hello Blo.dshotchrome.

One thing has caught my attention.  

Quote

Windows Defenders Firewall WILL NOT load (Although I hear that MBAM may set the Windows Defender processes to be Manual rather than automatic so that may explain this)

Malwarebytes does not /should not mess with the Windows Defender firewall.   ( lest by a long shot, only Malwarebytes for Windows is "registered" in the Windows Security Center".

 

My questions to you are:

Does this Windows only have Windows Defender as the resident antivirus? 

Or does it have some other name-brand non-MS antivirus?

Has this pc ever had any named brand AV of any sort ?

 

If you want Windows Defender as the AV  and you have no 3rd party one,  I would do this adjustment in MB4.

Start Malwarebytes. Click Settings ( gear ) icon. Next, lets make real sure that Malwarebytes does NOT register with Windows Security Center 

Click the Security Tab. Scroll down to 

"Windows Security Center"

Click the selection to the left  for the line "Always register Malwarebytes in the Windows Security Center".

Close Malwarebytes when done.

.

Lets then do a query about the windows firewall service.

On the Windows taskbar ,  on the Windows search box,  type in

cmd.exe

and then look at the entire list of choices, and click on Run as Administrator.

 

It is best to  use COPY & Paste for the following.

At the prompt either type or copy/paste the following commands, tap  Enter-key after each command:

sc config mpssvc start= auto

tap Enter-key.  

NEXT

Type or copy/paste the following command

net start MpsSvc

Tap Enter.

Please let me know the results,  as well as, the answers to questions above.

H  T  H

[hedera]

The post above was written in June 2020 with the statement that a fix was in the works.  From June through October, we continued to use Malwarebytes on my desktop, my husband's desktop, and my laptop (all Windows 10), with no networking problems.  The desktops are both on Ethernet, the laptop is on wifi.  We regularly install Malwarebytes updates including the one in October (?). 

In early November, I bought a new laptop and began to build it, after transferring my data, and we've had hell's own time getting to it on the network ever since.  It would vanish off the network and we'd have to reboot the desktops to get to it.  Having read the thread above, we decided to try turning off web protection on all the boxes, and the network problem went away.  My thought is, surely we shouldn't have had the problem, or been able to fix it that way, if Malwarebytes had provided the fix promised in June.  Also, we found by experiment that after turning web protection off, we could turn it back on, and the network would continue to work correctly.  Since I use GoodSync to synchronize a collection of folders between my desktop and the laptop, easy network access to the latter is critical. 

Can somebody tell me if this network/firewall problem has been fixed, and if not, when it will be fixed?  We're happy that we can now use our network, but we're very confused.  We aren't having any problems with Windows Defender, or at least I'm not.  I'm not sure what my husband uses.

[Porthos]

8 minutes ago, hedera said:

Can somebody tell me if this network/firewall problem has been fixed, and if not, when it will be fixed?

Please update to the current version and restart.